Mom sentenced for letting son, 7, drive

FAIRBANKS - A Fairbanks woman who let her 7-year-old son drive while she was passed out drunk in the passenger seat was sentenced to 20 days in jail.

District Court Judge Raymond Funk ordered 37-year-old Karen Koch to report to jail by Oct. 1. She will be on probation for three years and have to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for six months.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports Koch pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment in exchange for prosecutors dropping a charge of allowing an unauthorized person to drive. She has three previous convictions for drunken driving and did not speak at Wednesday's court hearing.

A neighbor called troopers in May after seeing a young boy driving a car with an adult passenger passed out.